2012 Istanbul Conference

24 May 2012 - 25 May 2012

Turkey

2012 International Parliamentarians' Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action

Istanbul, Turkey, 24-25 May 2012

The Fifth International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action (IPCI/ICPD) took place in Istanbul, Turkey, on 24-25 May 2012. The conference was organized by the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development (EPF) and UNFPA in collaboration with the regional parliamentary forums and hosted by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

IPCI Istanbul came at a very significant time for the ICPD mandate. With only two years before the Cairo agenda was expected to be complete, the conference was an excellent opportunity for parliamentarians to recommit themselves to this unfinished agenda.

While the international community undertakes the mandated United Nations General Assembly operational review at the national, regional and global levels, IPCI Istanbul provided the parliamentarians from around the world an opportunity to make their strategic contributions to this exercise, which will set forth the path for the ICPD agenda beyond 2014.

At the end of the two day event, the participants committed themselves to its unfinished plan by unanimously adopting the Istanbul Statement of Commitment. In it, and under the theme, Keeping Promises — Measuring Results, they determined to advocate for increased national and external funding for the entire implementation of the ICPD agenda in order to achieve access to sexual and reproductive health, including family planning. The parliamentarians pledged, among other actions to:

Attain at least 10 per cent of national development budgets and development assistance budgets for population and reproductive health programmes.” That includes HIV prevention and reproductive health commodities

Re-commit to ensuring the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product (GNP) for official development is met

Pledged to support policies that give special attention to the specific concerns and needs of young people by promoting and protecting their right to “access good quality education at all levels, health, sexual and reproductive services, including comprehensive sexuality education,” and to adopt measures to prevent all types of exploitation and abuse against them.

Finally, the participants decided to build a global network of ICPD supporters, and to ensure that “ICPD’s continuing and emerging priorities and concerns are reflected in the ICPD Beyond 2014 discussions and reporting.” They also called upon the United Nations General Assembly “to play a key role in building support for the ICPD Programme of Action,” and committed to holding themselves accountable for reporting on the follow-up to the IPCI commitments. More…